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Double Journal Entry #5

Relationship: Media literacy and traditional literacy differ in many ways. Traditional literacy deals with reading a text on a piece of paper, whereas media literacy is all online. Online brings many conflicts like propoganda, reading URLs, finding liable information, and identifying how and where the information came from. Media literacy takes a lot more work to think through; traditional literacy is easier to get straight information that you know is right. So, media literacy takes more critical thinking and work for students but its faster and on hand for students.

Quote: Moreover, many recent studies identify persistent barriers to integrating new technologies into instruction, including lack of training and help for teachers and insufficient access to functioning technology.

Response: If we have found that there is a problem of lack of training, why are we not funding training? Apparently media literacy is the new thing since most students use the internet for all of their needs, so why are teachers not including it in their teaching? They need help. The issue should be pushed more and teachers should be helped to find ways for their students to include it in their work. These barriers need to be thought about and something needs to be done about them. Media is only going to get bigger and bigger as the years go on, so why are we not already starting on getting ahead? Its only going to be more difficult in the future if we don't start now. Teachers are supposed to prepare students for the future, and how can we if we don't break the barriers, especially lack of training and help.

Website: This link shows what teachers need to be an effective teacher.

Citation: Derrick Meador. about.com. (2012). Effective Teacher. Retrieved September 26, 2012 from http://teaching.about.com/od/pd/a/Qualities-Of-An-Effective-Teacher.htm 

IPad App Review

Google Translate: In a foreign language class, you can use this app to help first year students understand the language better. It allows them to experience the language in a free reign. They can look up single words or whole sentences. The more they include themselves in the language, the easier they will learn it. It also does a varitey of languages, so if you want to do a project on comparing the language studied with other languages you could do so. Say you want to compare a word in Italian and Spanish because they are similar languages; then, you can see the difference and the students will be able to understand.
Hungry Fish: Pre-k or elementary school teachers can use this game to help students with their addition. I would say that middle and high school could use it too, but I don't think they would be interested enough to actually sit down and play with it. It starts out on a screen with a fish in the ocean. Then, out of a piece of sea coral, pops a number. You take that number and put it in the fish's mouth. Then it pops out two numbers. You combine the numbers and put them in the fish's mouth if added together they equal that number. As your difficulty gets greater, the more numbers in bubbles are out there and the bigger the number is on the fish.

Wiki Worksheet!

Wikipedia Reliability Worksheet

Article title:
Answer the following questions to see how reliable a Wikipedia article is.

1. Start with the main page. Does it have any cleanup banners that have been placed there to indicate problems with the article? (A complete list is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_messages/
   Cleanup.)

Any one of the following cleanup banners means the article is an unreliable source:

This article or section has multiple issues.	no
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.	no
The neutrality of this article is disputed.	no
The factual accuracy of this article is disputed.	no
This needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling.	no
This may contain material not appropriate for an encyclopedia.	no
This article only describes one highly specialized aspect of its associated subject.	no
This article requires authentication or verification by an expert.	yes
This article or section needs to be updated.	yes
This article may not provide balanced geographical coverage on a region.	no
This is missing citations or needs footnotes.	no
This article does not cite any references or sources.	no

2. Read through the article and see if it meets the following requirements:

Is it written in a clear and organized way?	yes
Is the tone neutral (not taking sides)?	yes
Are all important facts referenced (you're told where they come from)?	yes
Does the information provided seem complete or does it look like there are gaps (or just one side of the story)?	complete

3. Scroll down to the article's References and open them in new windows or tabs. Do they seem like reliable sources? (For help in determining the general reliability of a source, check out the Knowing What's What and What's Note: The 5 Ws (and 1 "H") of Cyberspace handout.)
   
   Reliable references: all links were reliable
   
   
   Possibly unreliable references:
   
   
   Definitely unreliable references:
   
   
4. Click on the Discussion tab. How is the article rated on the Rating Scale (Stub, Start, C, B, GA, A, FA)? What issues around the article are being discussed? Do any of them make you doubt the article's reliability?

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It has not yet been rated.

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5. Based on the above questions, give the article an overall ranking of Reliable, Partially Reliable or Unreliable.

• You may use a Reliable article as a source (but remember that even if a Wikipedia article is reliable, it should never be your only source on a topic!)
  
  
• You may use a Partially Reliable article as a starting point for your research, and may use some
  of its references as sources, but do not us it as a source.
  
  
• You should not use an Unreliable article as a source or a starting point. Research the same topic in a different encyclopedia.

How did you rank this article (Reliable, Partially Reliable or Unreliable)? Give at least three reasons to support
your answer.

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reliable

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3 users and reliability:

1. Bachcell- I have no clue who he is, but the talk page shows he has edited many articles for wikipedia. --partially reliable
2.Lsantow- He writes the curriculum for everyday mathematics. -- extremely reliable
3.Twisted86 or Michael Heggen- He lives in Oregon and teaches fencing. There was nothing about math on his page and he is new to wikipedia. -- not reliable

Overall, I think I still feel the same about wikipedia. It should be used as a background because most of the information is good but there may be some ifs ands and buts about it so it shouldn't be cited on papers because not everyone who edits it is fully aware of every detail with every article.

Wikipedia

Questions for Activity #1:

a. What is Wikipedia? -- a multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia, that is run by a nonprofit organization
b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”? --vandalism and errors can be taken out faster than you think because there is constant watch on it
c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation? -- many people watching the site
d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia? -- He thought that the authority should go to the experts, not just anyone.
e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page? -- it would be highlighted
f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal? -- how they use their money and where it comes from as well as goes to
g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful? -- its accessable and easy to use
h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising? -- it would boggle down the site and push certain people away from using it
i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries? -- it shows who is actually posting reliable facts or abusing it regularly

Activity #2:

In my everyday life, I do not use wikipedia. In school, I wasn't allowed to use it so I never really clicked on it for anything. If I needed something, I would go to a different site to learn about it. These 4 ways of using wikipedia are pretty cool because I didn't really have any idea abou them. I'm going to have to use them in the future. Especially for world lit! I think that teachers should give their student the option to use it for background information or even the links or content knowledge because as mentioned in the article, it DOES give a good backbone. If a student is struggling on where to start or is confused as to what the topic is about, let them search wiki for it. Obviously if it has worked this long, there has got to be something good about it.

Double Entry Journal #4

Quote: According to a recent study from the Pew Center for Internet & American Life, more than half of all teens have generated media content and roughly a third of teens online have shared content they produced with others.

Response: Reading this, I was surprised and amazed. When I first read it, I was pondering whoa that is a lot; then, after thinking about it, I was more in the mindset of oh, well that sounds about right. It is a daily thing for me. This paticipatory culture, as mentioned in the article as a new media literacy, gives us the ability to share what we know and what other people know with anyone and everyone. Wikipedia does this by posting their stuff on the internet where a lot of people have access to at almost all times. Wikipedia enables users to comment back on everything as well as input their own knowledge; doing so, they are promoting some of the new skills that have come about in the 21st century. These skills are feedback, expressing themselves, and using media. I believe that these are all good things, as well as wikipedia is, but when doing research projects I do not believe that wikipedia should be used. As discussed in class, I think that it should be used as a background get the feel of it sort of thing, but not as a cited source. This article agrees by saying that encyclopedias should not be cited in research essays.

Article: Wikipedia in Schools -- This article is by Wikipedia about Wikipedia being used in schools. I think it is kind of ironic in a way that whenever I googled Wikipedia in schools, the first article I found was from Wikipedia itself stating their opinion and facts on the debate.

Citation: Wikipedia. (2009 Aug 30). Wikipedia in Schools. Retrieved September 18, 2012 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_in_Schools

How a Ragtag Band Created Wikipedia

3 things I learned:

1. Wikipedia is in many languages.
2. It is bigger than the New York Times.
3. It is managed by a community of volunteers.

2 things I agreed with:

1. It is a good idea to have a recent changes page so that they can change the stuff that shouldn't actually be there.
2. I agree with the fact that you can post things anonymously even though it is only a slight 18 percent.

1 thing I disagree with:

1. I don't think that the articles should be open ended.

Learning Style Blog Post

This video kind of scared me at first, because whenever I find out something that I've heard and accepted to be right for years is wrong, it kind of scares me. He made a good point with the atom example by saying the student might have just needed one more example or it was better displayed by the analogy. I believe this to be true, especially in science or math because it's always helpful to hear things put different ways so that you can understand it better. I still somewhat believe that students learn auditorily, kinesthetically, and visually to an extent, but his points put up a very good arguement. Good teaching is good teaching and bad teaching is bad teaching, it doesn't matter what learning style the student is, rather how good at displaying the ,essage the teacher is.

Picassohead! 8)

I feel as though I learn by all three types of styles, regardless of
what that survey says, because on many of the questions,
I wanted to choose more than one of the answers.
There are three different heads other than my own to
support this idea. I also put a blue thing hanging from
my mouth to support the idea of concentration because
if I don't concentrate then none of the three styles can happen.

Technology can be used in the classroom by doing things like this. It engages the student and helps them learn. This is more of a doing it learning style, but yet they can see it on the screen, as well as, hear it in videos. Technology has greatened the idea of knowledge. Now we have it at our fingertips, its just up to us to use it. Teachers can have students do projects where they have to look up stuff, read articles, watch videos, and play games. All of those beforementioned things will help a student learn and become more taken into the material in which they are working.

Double Entry Journal #3

Quote: This theory divides students into three types according to their learning styles: visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners

Your brain is always at work in many different
ways(shown by different colors).

Response: I believe that this theory is true. Every student is different and learns differently, but they can be divided into three main groups: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. In my classroom, I plan on finding activities that demonstate all three to help any student learn. I want to say things over and over, consistently show students how to do things- if they do not understand, and have them participate in activities with their hands to see it and participate in it as well. Students can be a bit of more than one of these learning styles, so therefore it helps to do all three. I, myself, believe that for me it helps to have all three. Taking notes all day, doesn't help as much as doing it and hearing it said to me. But writing it does in a way help with memorization, if I repetitievely write it. I just get bored and distracted so it would be better to have a hands on activity or discussion where I hear other people talk about it as well.


Picture:

Citation: Margaret. (2011). Learning Styles. Retrieved September 14, 2012 from: http://dtygz.com/ -- Learning Styles. (2010). Retrieved September 14, 2012 from: http://perc.mspinnyc.org/?p=91 

A Few Years Later

Double Entry Journal #2

Citation: Texting Symbols List For Facebook. (2009). Retrieved Sept 07, 2012, http://lmg.letmeget.net/blog/texting-symbols-list-facebook -- History We ALL Love. (2000-2009). Retrieved Sept 07, 2012, http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397594&page=116 

Quote: You may not like seeing the phrase “LOL — U R gr8” on the page, but it is common enough that you are likely to understand it.


Emotion: Depending on the age group, the response to this is different. My mother wouldn't be able to understand it because she hasn't been texting for very long, therefore, doesn't understand the lingo. Also, older generations understand lol as lots of love instead of our use of laugh out loud. So implying that it is likely that we know what it days is just too much of a generalization. We might guess as to what it is, but not know it and in certain situations it could be a bad thing. If someone from the past generation said grandma died lol, I would be offended. I guess my point is just that people understand things in different ways and some don't and won't understand it. 

Picture:
 

Not everyone knows what this means or interprets it the same way.

Quote: But a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project confirms that middle school and high school students understand what kind of language is appropriate in what context.

Emotion: I do believe that this is correct because some students in my high school and I were having a conversation/debate about it in English class my junior year. We all agreed that even though we text u on our phones, we would spell it out on an essay- you. Even in high school we know that it's proper English and more professional to spell words out in certain cases. It is just easier, quicker, and much nicer to not have to go through all of the trouble of spelling while texting. The whole idea of a text is to get the point across and quick, so why wouldn't we, as in the technology generations, make up abbreviations to help us succeed at that? 

Picture:

You don't make a car out of a house, why would you use texting abbreviations in an essay?


 

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